For Students

Benefits include:

• Automatic membership in the CBA Young Lawyers Division (YLD). The CBA YLD organizes and participates in legal education programs, pro bono activities, community service projects and social events. You can also join the YLD listserv to be automatically notified of such events and other programs of interest to new attorneys and law students. YLD also offers leadership opportunities.

• Free local bar membership in one of the following: Arapahoe, Boulder, Denver, Douglas/Elbert, El Paso, Pueblo and Weld County Bar Associations. Local bar association activities and newsletters provide more networking opportunities and other ways to get more involved in local legal communities.

• Special student rates to attend 1-day continuing legal education programs. Did you take a class that sparked your interest in a particular area of law? Follow that up by attending a CLE program in that field of law and then impress your professors with all that you learn.

• Involvement in any of the CBA Sections & Committees offers a unique opportunity for members to study issues and influence legislation, participate in educational programs, and network with other people with similar interests. Law students are encouraged to become active in the sections and committees.

• Through the CBA Member Advantage Providers Program, you can get discounts on goods and services offered by vendors, including professional liability and group health insurance, high-speed Internet access, overnight delivery, car purchasing assistance, credit cards, car rental, litigation presentation technology and more.

Student Debt Relief Programs and Resources

Student debt hasn’t made the recession easier for lawyers who are still paying down the steep price of their educations. And while student debt is especially hard to get rid of, there are a couple of recent programs that could help, depending on your circumstances.

College Cost Reduction and Access Act – Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Under this program, qualifying employees of government and 501(c)(3) organizations may be eligible for loan forgiveness after 10 years of payments. Wondering if this applies to you? Equal Justice Works makes it a whole lot easier for you to find out by telling youwhich jobs qualify, which loans are covered, and what you need to do for the next 10 years to make sure you can benefit from this program. There’s even a checklist that tells you exactly what to do to determine whether you qualify and to set your eligible payments in motion.

College Cost Reduction and Access Act – Income-Based Repayment

This program attempts to make it possible for people to make realistic monthly payments based on their debt burden and their income. After 25 years of payments, remaining debt will be forgiven. Again, look to the resources provided by Equal Justice Works to see if you qualify. IBRinfo also offers a calculator that lets you enter some basic information to see if you might qualify.

You might not know it, but you could qualify for student debt relief under the College Cost Reduction & Access Act of 2007. Real debt relief in the form of lower payments and eventual debt forgiveness. Of course, as with any piece of legislation, the devil is in the details. And in this particular Act, there is no shortage of details. This is why the CBA’s Economic Task Force flew Heather Jarvis, a nationally-recognized expert on the topic, out to Colorado to talk to groups here in the CLE classroom, and at both Colorado law schools. If you missed the program, you can still tap into Heather’s resources on theEqual Justice Works site, including: